BDS Red Hot Chili Peppers urged to abandon Israel gig

Open letter from Lebanon to the Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Come to Lebanon, but not to Israel: Until All Palestinians Have the Right of Return"

25 April 2012

Dear Red Hot Chili Peppers,

Last November you played at a benefit for Palestinian refugee children at Cafe de Paris in London. Your decision to support Palestinian refugees must have come from an understanding that for 64 years Palestinians have been denied the right to return to their land and to be compensated for loss incurred by the Zionist colonization of their land. Fighting for the implementation of this right is the central tenet of the Palestinian Boycott National Committee and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). As a result, we find it strange that less than a month after your benefit concert you announced your decision to play in Israel.

Come to Lebanon on September 6th, but honor the 2005call from Palestinian Civil Society, and do not go to Israel on September 10th. Come to Lebanon and learn of the oppression we have also endured at the hands of the Israeli army and its collaborators; unlearn the myths Israel propagates. The soil that Arabs have cultivated for centuries, in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria, has been militarily occupied for decades by Israel. The Palestinians have been denied their right to return to their land solely because they are not Jewish. The essence of Israeli colonialism in the region is about control over the land using military mechanisms that also prevent refugees from returning. Your participation in last year's event supporting Palestinian refugees suggests you sympathize with Palestinian refugees' struggle for the right of return.

Numerous bands and artists have already heeded Palestinian Civil Society’s 2005 Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel as a reaction to its occupation, apartheid and denial of Palestinian refugees inalienable right to return to their homes, as stipulated in UN resolution 194. Music cannot be isolated from politics. A visit to Israel is viewed by Israel, and internationally, as implicit support for Israeli policies and indifference to the victims of Israeli crimes. Ilan Pappe, an anti-Zionist Israeli historian and strong supporter of the BDS, recently wrote: “The cultural image in Israel feeds the political decision in the west to support unconditionally the Israeli destruction of Palestine and the Palestinians.”

We ask you to follow in the steps of Cat Power, the Pixies, Gorillaz Sound System, Elvis Costello, Gil Scott-Heron, Carlos Santana, Bono/U2, Devendra Banhart, among others, who did not perform in Israel, and to support the call for boycott that was recently embraced by Roger Waters and Pete Seeger. In the letter Roger Waters wrote announcing his support of a cultural boycott of Israel, he said:

My conviction is born in the idea that all people deserve basic human rights. My position is not anti-Semitic. This is not an attack on the people of Israel.

This is, however, a plea to my colleagues in the music industry, and also to artists in other disciplines, to join this cultural boycott.

Artists were right to refuse to play in South Africa’s Sun City resort until apartheid fell and whites and blacks enjoyed equal rights.

And we are right to refuse to play in Israel until the day comes — and it surely will come — when “The Wall” of occupation falls...

It is not only the Palestinians who have been victimized by Israel. We, in Lebanon, have suffered a great deal. Israeli aggressions against Lebanon began in 1948, with the occupation and annexation of 30 Lebanese villages, and have continued regularly since then. Most recently:

1. 2006: More than 1000 Lebanese civilians were killed by Israel in the 33-day most aggressive onslaught by Israel. The July 2006 war was regarded as a crime against humanity and a war crime by a tribunal of international judges.

2. 2006 to present: Millions of Israeli cluster bombs (from the July 2006 war) and land mines (from the 22-year occupation) still contaminate Lebanese agricultural land. These bombs continue to kill and injure people.

3. May 15, 2011: Israeli soldiers shot and killed 11 civilians and injured more than 100. These unarmed civilians were on the Lebanese border with Israel, and had been calling for their legal and legitimate right to return to their homes in Palestine.

4. 1948 to present: Israel continues to deprive 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon from their right of return to their homes and land and villages from which they were forced to leave at gun point in 1948. The refugees are not allowed to return only because they are not Jewish!

In response to Israel's Freedom Flotilla massacre, the prominent Scottish writer, Iain Banks, wrote in the Guardian that the best way for international artists, writers and academics to “convince Israel of its moral degradation and ethical isolation” is “simply by having nothing more to do with this outlaw state.”

We urge you not to allow your music and talent to be used to whitewash the crimes of this outlaw state.

We urge you to stand with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and globally by supporting our people's struggle for equality in our land and on our terms.

Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel in Lebanon

Read the full article, here.

Jews in the News: Jews Rock Hall of Fame, A Minyan of Marvel ...

tagged: celebrities

Posted by Nate Bloom in Arts & Culture

Nate Bloom blogs on this week’s Jews in the News.

Jews Rock the Hall of Fame

Last December, when the inductions for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced, I wrote a similar column item to the one below. If you missed that item, here it is again with some updates. The induction ceremony took place on April 15 and will be televised on HBO on Saturday evening, May 5 (many encore showings).

Individual inductees: (1) singer-songwriter LAURA NYRO (1947-97), was born Laura Nigro, the child of secular parents. Her maternal grandparents were Russian Jewish, as was her father’s mother. Her paternal grandfather was Italian Catholic. Nyro wrote very well-crafted songs that others turned into big hits, including “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Stoned Soul Picnic,” and “Eli’s Coming.” Ovarian cancer claimed her. She was inducted by a tearful BETTE MIDLER, 66, who said at the ceremony: “In a world of imitators . . . she was a complete original. She was an ornament on the Earth.”  (2) DON KIRSHNER (1934-2011), inducted as a “non-performer,” he was the genius producer/executive who was critical to the creation of most of the best rock music of the early-to-mid ‘60s. His stable of in-house songwriters included CAROLE KING, NEIL SEDAKA, BARRY MANN, CYNTHIA WEIL, and NEIL DIAMOND. He created the Archies and the Monkees rock bands. King, 70, inducted him, saying: “He was one of the most significant influences on popular music in the 20th century.”

Bands: (1) The Red Hot Chili Peppers, a hard rockin’ band: the original line-up (and Hall inductees) includes two Jewish members: JACK IRONS, 49, the original drummer, and HILLEL SLOVAK, the original lead guitarist. Born (1962) in Israel, the son of Holocaust survivors, Slovak’s great talent was overwhelmed by drugs and he died (1988) of an overdose. (2) The Beastie Boys, the best “white” rap group of all-time, its line-up has always been: Adam Yauch, 47, ADAM HOROVITZ, 45, and MIKE DIAMOND, 46. Although the band has sometimes touched on Jewish themes– the ‘two Adams’ come with asterisks. Horovitz is the son of a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, while Yauch is the son of a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father. Both were raised secular. Yauch, long a devout Buddhist, is sadly fighting cancer, and wasn’t able to be at the ceremony. (3) Guns ‘N Roses: STEVEN ADLER, 46, the group’s original virtuoso drummer. He’s battled a serious drug problem for decades.

A Minyan of Marvel Heroes

Opening on May 4, is “The Avengers,” which is based on a Marvel Comic created by co-created STAN LEE, 89, who has a cameo in the flick.  A number of the most famous Marvel heroes are assembled to fight a new, terrible enemy. Robert Downey, Jr. appears for third time in a film as “Iron Man.” SCARLETT JOHANSSON, 27, who acted with Downey in “Iron Man 2,” reprises her role as Natasha Romanoff, AKA the Black Widow.  This flick has pretty good advance “buzz.”

TV Updates and Premieres

I previously wrote that the new HBO series, “Girls,” has four young women as its lead characters: series creator LENA DUNHAM, 25, whose mother is Jewish, plays Hannah Horvath; ZOSIA MAMET, 23, the daughter of playwright DAVID MAMET, 64, plays Jewish character Shoshanna Shapiro; Allison Williams, the daughter of NBC anchor Brian Williams, plays Marnie Michaels; and I just found out that JEMIMA KIRKE, 27, who plays Shapiro’s English cousin, Jessa Johansson, is the daughter of a non-Jewish father (former “Bad Company” drummer Simon Kirke) and a Jewish mother, LORRAINE DELLAL, 60.  Lorraine’s father, JACK DELLAL, 83, is a famous and very wealthy British real estate developer whose parents were Iraqi Jews. Lorraine’s mother, ZEHAVA HELMER, is a former Israeli stewardess.  The premiere Israeli center for dance, the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv, was funded by Jack in memory of Lorraine’s sister, who died in childhood.

“The Conversation” is a talk show on the Lifetime network that began on April 26. New episodes air Thursday at 11PM. Host Amanda De Cadenet, who is famous in Britain, interviews famous women.  The premiere show guests were Jane Fonda, Zoe Saldana, GWYNETH PALTROW, and SARAH SILVERMAN (this episode can be seen on the Lifetime web site). Other famous Jewish woman scheduled to appear on the eight-episode series include DIANE VON FURSTENBERG (May 17), DONNA KARAN (June 7) and IVANKA TRUMP (June 14).  A reviewer for “USA Today” wrote:  “‘The Conversation’ is a series that’s smart, often funny and not the least bit cheesy. (unlike much Lifetime programming).”

Nate Bloom writes a weekly column on Jewish celebrities, broadly defined, that appears in the Atlanta Jewish Times, the Cleveland Jewish News, the American Israelite of Cincinnati, the Detroit Jewish News, and the New Jersey Jewish Standard. It also appears bi-weekly in j., the Jewish news weekly of northern California. Most of the items in Bloom’s weekly newspaper column differ from the items in his bi-weekly column on interfaith celebrities for InterfaithFamily.com. If you wish to contact Nate Bloom, e-mail him at middleoftheroad1@aol.com .  The author welcomes questions and celebrity “tips,” especially about people you personally know.

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Campaign to urge Red Hot Chili Peppers to cancel Tel Aviv gig ...

Boycott, divestment and sanctions activists and supporters around the world continue to urge popular US rock group the Red Hot Chili Peppers to cancel their gig in Tel Aviv, scheduled for September.

The US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel has been at the core of social media campaigns directed towards the Red Hot Chili Peppers, on Twitter (directing activists to tweet their boycott support to the @chilipeppers account) and on the RCHP’s facebook page. Israeli activists with Boycott From Within! have drafted a letter to the band, telling them not to cross the international picket line.

There is also an online letter by Israeli activist Tali Shapiro that is quickly gathering signatures of support, encouraging the RHCP to reject playing for an audience segregated by Israeli apartheid policies. “I and my friends, who are prohibited from from attending your show by military law and force, will be happy to rock out, once equality is practiced in this region,” the letter states.

Open letter by BDS activists in Lebanon

And the campaign continues to gather momentum. Today, BDS activists in Lebanon put out an open letter encouraging the band to cancel their Israel performance and “not to allow your music and talent to be used to whitewash the crimes of this outlaw state.” 

If RHCP cancel their gig and respect the 2005 Palestinian-led call for boycott until Israel abides by international law, it would be huge — and the band would join the growing list of artists and musicians who have decided not to cross the boycott line, including U2, the Pixies, Cat Power and Elvis Costello. 

Online daily Al-Akhbar English reported today that RCHP performed at a fundraiser last year for the London-based Hoping Foundation, which supports projects for Palestinian refugee children. The report stated that the band helped raise more than $500,000. 

In their open letter, printed in full in the Al-Akhbar article, the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel in Lebanon said: 

Your decision to support Palestinian refugees must have come from an understanding that for 64 years Palestinians have been denied the right to return to their land and to be compensated for loss incurred by the Zionist colonization of their land. … As a result, we find it strange that less than a month after your benefit concert you announced your decision to play in Israel.

As we reported back in November, the Lebanese BDS campaign had been attacked and litigated against by a concert promoter who was unhappy when BDS activists had protested a concert by a musician who had performed in Israel prior to the Beirut gig. But despite intimidation, Lebanese BDS activists remain a powerful and influential group. Their letter continues:

Artists were right to refuse to play in South Africa’s Sun City resort until apartheid fell and whites and blacks enjoyed equal rights.

And we are right to refuse to play in Israel until the day comes — and it surely will come — when “The Wall” of occupation falls…

It is not only the Palestinians who have been victimized by Israel. We, in Lebanon, have suffered a great deal. Israeli aggressions against Lebanon began in 1948, with the occupation and annexation of 30 Lebanese villages, and have continued regularly since then.

… We urge you to stand with Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and globally by supporting our people’s struggle for equality in our land and on our terms.

End "Israeli" War Crimes: Settlers Raise Israel's Flag On Top Of ...

Illegal Jewish Squatters Desecrate the Ibrahimi Mosque

by Saed Bannoura

A group of extremist Israeli settlers raised Israeli flags on top of the Ibrahimi Mosque, in the southern West Bank city of Hebron- the fourth holiest sites in Islam, for the first time ever since Hebron fell under Israeli occupation in 1967.

 The Milad News Agency reported that head of the Waqf and Endowment Department in Hebron, Zeid Al-Ja’bary, slammed the provocative move and stated that “this is an attack against the religious and historic stature of this site to millions of Muslims around the world”.

He added that this is a “seriously dangerous provocative act” targeting the holy site.

It is worth mentioning that Israeli Prime Minister, and his fundamentalist coalition partners, decided to consider the Ibrahimi Mosque, also referred to as the “Cave of Patriarchs”, as part of the Jewish Heritage sites, a move that was meant to preclude the Palestinian attempt to have the UNESCO officially include the Old City of Hebron on its list of historic and archeological cities.

Hebron Governor, Kamel Hameed, held the Israeli government responsible for provocative acts and attacks carried out by extremist settlers in Hebron.

Hameed told the Milad News Agency that “writing street names in Hebrew, renaming the mosque, and placing iron and electronic gates on its entrances are provocative acts that are meant to prevent the Muslims from entering it”.

He added that the Ibrahimi Mosque “is in the hearts and minds of Millions of Muslims around the world”, and added that Israeli settlers are pushing the region into instability.

Hebron Mayor, Khaled Al Aseely, stated that this act is part of Israel’s violations against Islamic Holy sites and the historic heritage of the region, and falls under Israel’s ongoing violations, including the Israeli decision to consider the mosque as part of the “Jewish heritage sites”, a decision that was rejected by numerous human rights and cultural institutions around the world.

 Source

End "Israeli" War Crimes: Israel army chief: Other nations could ...

Israel's military chief said Thursday that other countries have readied their armed forces for a potential strike against Iran's nuclear sites to keep Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons.

Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz did not specify which nations might be willing to support or take direct action against Iran and have thousands more die for the Israeli agenda. Still, his comments were one of the strongest and he kept a straight poker face.  Does Israel have any support? Does Israel have backing of other countries to strike the Islamic Republic to prevent what it says is from developing nuclear arms.

"The military force is ready," Gantz said. "Not only our forces, but other forces as well."

"We all hope that there will be no necessity to use this force, but we are absolutely sure of its existence," he told The Associated Press, adding that he was not speaking on behalf of any other nation.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and that it does not aim to develop atomic weapons.

Israel, which views a Iran as an existential threat, has said it will not allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear bomb. It cites Iranian calls for Israel's destruction, but yet in the following video above an 

 

Israel's key ally, the United States, favors diplomacy and economic sanctions and has said military action on Iran's nuclear facilities should only be a last resort if all else fails. U.S. logistical and diplomatic support would likely be crucial to any potential Israeli strike.

Washington and other major powers have imposed a series of crippling economic sanctions while opening a dialogue with Iran.

Gantz said that in his assessment Iran is seeking to develop its "military nuclear capability," but that the Islamic Republic would ultimately bow to international pressure and decide against building a weapon.

The key to that pressure, he said, were sanctions and the threat of a military strike.

Gantz's stance on Iran's intentions appeared to put him at odds with Israel's political leaders, who have staked out a more hardline position. Gantz denied that was the case Thursday, saying there was no internal disagreement over Iran's aims.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN on Tuesday that international sanctions have not changed Iran's behavior, and that the country continues to enrich uranium — a key step toward developing a weapon.

The sanctions "haven't rolled back the Iranian program or even stopped it by one iota," Netanyahu said appearing like he can't wait to start war war 3.

 

End "Israeli" War Crimes: Barak told Clinton about plans to Judaize ...

911 Architect Ehud Barak and War Criminal Bill Clinton

by Susie Kneedler

In "Israel's Strategy to seize Jerusalem, on display for all to see," in the National, Joseph Dana shows the Israeli government plot of purging Palestine:

Ehud Barak is rumoured to have informed former president US Bill Clinton that Israel had no intention of relinquishing sovereign control over Jerusalem and delineating clear borders around the holy city. The Palestinians of East Jerusalem, Mr Barak purportedly told Mr Clinton, were an unfortunate reality that Israel would deal with in due time.

More than a decade later, Israel is demonstrating exactly how it intends to deal with the Palestinians of East Jerusalem. The strategy has a number of fronts: dispossess Palestinians through the creation of national "heritage parks" that lay claim to land through archaeological speculation; deprive Palestinian areas of necessary municipality services; and deny almost every building permit required for natural Palestinian growth in the city. In short, take as much land as possible while making Palestinians' lives as difficult as possible....

Jerusalem remains the beating heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The systematic land reallocation and continuing Palestinian expulsions are perhaps the best examples of Israeli policy in historic Palestine over the past 60 years. Yet, as My Neighbourhood demonstrates [a new short film about Sheikh Jarrah, produced by Just Vision, the production outfit responsible for the successful 2009 documentary Budrus], not all Israelis and Palestinians buy into the hysterical rhetoric of their respective leaders. In fact, increasing numbers prefer to embrace non-traditional methods of co-habituation and nonviolent resistance to combat the sinister forces which surround them.

 Source

End "Israeli" War Crimes: Zio-Nazi group attacks academics critical ...

Zio-Nazi propaganda poster

From Khalid Amayreh

A small supremacist Jewish group is launching a smear campaign against a number of professors and academics on North American campuses for daring to criticize racist Israeli policies against native Palestinians.

The group, called Campus Watch and headed by David Horowitz, an extremist Zionist stalwart, has published advertisements inciting to hatred against a number of prominent professors on American campuses.

The academics are accused of vilifying Israel and of indulging in hate speech that would endanger the very existence of the apartheid Israeli state.

However, it is widely thought that the witch-hunt campaign is aimed first and foremost at silencing legitimate criticisms of murderous and brutal Israeli practices. College campuses are considered the last bastion of liberalism in the United States where right-wing Jewish robber barons and Christian Zionist groups are joining forces to suppress freedom of speech and expression.

Howowitz and his group readily ignore the manifestly Nazi-like discourse in Israel, or what is referred to as Talmudic Nazism, such as denying the very humanity of non-Jews, the genocidal trends harbored by supremacist Jewish groups like Chabad and the nefarious conduct of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.

Last year, the most famous rabbi in Israel, Ovadia Yosef, was quoted as saying during a Sabbath homily that non-Jews are effectively donkeys and that the Almighty created them solely to serve Jews.

"Goyem," Yossef said " were born to serve us."

Yossef is the spiritual mentor of the fundamentalist party, Shas, which represents Jews from the Middle East. He has hundreds of thousands of faithful followers.

A rabbi affiliated with the Chabad cult, was heard on video claiming that a Jew could without the slightest compunction murder a gentile in order to extricate an organ from the victim if the Jew needed one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYBsDwjezQI&feature=email

The academics targeted by Horowitz and his so-called "Freedom Center" include the following: Bill Ayers, University of Illinois, Chicago (emeritus); Khalid Abu Alfadl, University of California, Los Angeles, Law School; Hamed Algar, University of California, Berkley; Joseph Massad, Columbia University; Julio Pino, Kent State University, Manljeh Nasserabad, NY University; Carlos Munoze, Jr. University of California, Berkley; Timothy Michell, Columbia University; Abha Sur, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and William J. Tompson, University of Michigan. Dearborn.

In the advertisement the Horowitz group urged citizens and students to contact the president of local universities and ask them to publicly condemn their faculty's participation in activities deemed anti-Israeli, such as opposing the Israeli lebensraum and ethnic cleansing policies in the West Bank.

Many intellectuals around the world have compared the Israeli approach toward the Palestinians with the Nazi policies in Europe.

Last month, the famous German poet Guenter Grass described Israel as the most dangerous state in the world.

Even liberal Jewish intellectuals made Zionist-Nazi analogies on several occasions. However, such criticisms have utterly failed to redirect Israel toward peace and civility as the Israeli Jewish society continues to drift toward Jewish fascism and jingoism.

This fascism, one of whose manifestations is the current Israeli government which is made up of fanatical and genocidal settlers, is viewed with particular gravity around the world since Israel is widely believed to possess a large stockpile of nuclear weapons. 

Many observers also think the Israeli-American fixation on the Iranian nuclear program is first and foremost intended to divert attention away from Israel's huge nuclear arsenal used to maximize and spread Jewish hegemony and supremacy in the region and beyond.

 Source